ABSTRACT
This chapter presents concepts and methods to investigate digital media, participation and citizenship. It begins by focusing on the context in which contemporary digital media platforms have progressively developed, discussing shifts in the Western media ecosystem and in the way media content is produced, consumed and used. In doing so, it presents a series of concepts central to contemporary digital media research, in particular, produsage, platformisation and datafication. This also leads to a discussion of contemporary forms of resistance to the processes described by these very concepts; resistance taking place through data activism and digital citizenship. The remainder of the chapter specifically focuses on the discursive practices enhanced by the shifts in content production, consumption, and use traced in its early sections. It discusses public sphere, counterpublic and networked public dynamics emerging on contemporary digital media platforms and develops a final focus on the relevance of platform curation practices and visual cultures to contemporary digital participatory practices.
